Brass
by Collybear
Summary: What if Cloud Strife's life was focused on a world of steam and gears? A world which only a hand full of people could keep up and running, including himself. An FFVII alternate universe steampunk fanfiction.


**Summary:** What if Cloud Strife's life was focused on a world of steam and gears? A world which only a hand full of people could keep up and running, including himself.

**Warnings:** This story will contain AU(alternate universe), some characterization tweaking to fit the setting, violence in later chapters and YAOI. Please do not leave hateful comments, if you don't like any of the elements(or the story itself even) please do not leave a review unless it is in some way constructive.

**Disclaimer:**

I do not only Final Fantasy VII, nor do I own any of the characters. I am simply a fan, writing this for my own amusement and no profit what so ever.

* * *

With a sigh, Cloud Strife brushed his hand through his hair, pulling the dark blonde strands out of his eyes and off his face that clung from his sweat. The work hours had been especially long and merciless recently, and the longer the days got the hotter the garage seemed to get.

Cloud was tired of it, just plain tired.

He hadn't had a day off in ages due to being the town's only competent mechanic, and it was really starting to get to him. The usual leisure Cloud once enjoyed on the weekends before his Master's retirement were no more; instead, that time was spent knee deep in motor oil and gears, working his hands to the bone to keep the town of Nibelheim up and running. ...for a small fee of course.

Admittedly thought, at the moment he couldn't complain too much about his hours, or anything to do with his job really. Cloud was staying later than usual to work on a project all of his own. A bike, and it wasn't just a normal two wheeled pedal bike, it was a motorbike.

After getting his license a few years back, Cloud had wanted a car, or any sort of vehicle of his own. Just something with wheels. Even if he didn't necessarily need one for moving around inside his own town, seeing as it was so small, Cloud knew it would definitely make getting materials from the major mechanic hubs _a lot _easier. Rocket Town wasn't just a hike away, and it was costing Cloud money he didn't have to get his materials transported to him after each shipment arrived. If he didn't start picking up his own packages he'd be deep in debt in no time.

He pushed himself to his feet to examine the huge machine he'd been working on for the past few hours. The bike was a elegant looking contraption, though no doubt it had aged. Bolts painted gold held the metal panels together and the tires in place. The brass body wasn't yet rusted too badly, but the edges around the tires were starting to show signs of deterioration. Cloud could easily deal with that after he at least got the thing working though. Right now, the tangled horde of wires and gears that hung below the gut was his main problem. If he even _tried_ to drive it in it's current state, the whole engine would fall out of the bottom.

Cloud was pulled from the admiration of his machine when his stomach growled, reminding him that it was indeed lunch time and dinner the previous night had been his last meal. He was pretty much running on empty.

Discarding his oil cloth on his work bench and pulling his work goggles down around his neck, Cloud pulled down on a small lever adjacent to the garage door. Gears clicked a few times above the boy's head before the door began to open with a shrill screech.

The air that met Cloud, as the door rolled away was thick with smog and dust from the town and it's nearby reactor, but he didn't mind. He was used to it to a degree by now, and the outdoor air, however dirty, was still cooler than the warm, motor oil and rust filled air that Cloud was trapped in for hours a day as he worked.

Cloud coughed a few times into his leather gloved hand before wheeling a dolly cart piled high with household mechanics out of the building. On his way to eat he could deliver the objects to their owners.

* * *

As the blonde teen entered the local restaurant he was met with a friendly greeting from the bearded man behind the counter, "Hey, Cloudy boy, you're later than usual! Still the lunch time usual though, I take it?"

Cloud responded with a quick wave and a short reply,"Y-yeah, thanks John," he shouted back weakly, wary of disturbing any other tenants.

He scanned the dinning area before helped himself to a seat in the corner of the restaurant, opposite the only other people present, a young couple out on an afternoon date. Cloud was acquainted with both of them, but he paid them no heed. They'd been rather cruel to him in his younger years.

"Hiya Cloud, been a while since you've been here on my shift," a familiar voice spoke (a bit to sudden) to the teen; he fumbled with and drop the small industrial gear he'd begun to whirl about his finger.

He made no move to pick it off the ground after it made a few metallic _ting_ sounds against the concrete floor, "Ah...yeah, I've been busy," the blonde hair boy almost stuttered out, blushing slightly and lowering his head, "How are you, Tifa?"

The slim girl placed her busing tray on the table and bent over, retrieving the little brass object,"Pretty okay; you know, same old, same old," she handed the gear to Cloud before setting down utensils and a plastic cup of water on the table, "I see you're still as much of a mech nerd as you were when we learn together with Master Zangan. Can't you leave your work _at_ work?" She laughed out her last statement with a good-natured grin and Cloud broke a slight smile for a moment.

"Guess not..."

"Oh, I almost forgot! The Shinra Company left some fliers here, I think they're look for new people. They're just on the hostess' table if you want to take a look." With a flick of her hair Tifa headed off to tend to the other occupied table.

The idea of picking up a flier did a double take in Cloud's mind. At first he found no reason to consider it too hard, but on second thought, he realized Shirna was based in Midgar, and this could be his chance to get away from Nibelheim.

Not that Cloud didn't _like _ Nibelheim, he was in fact very fond of his hometown. It was partly because he knew no other place by experience, as he'd never travelled, but also because it was a truly nice and safe neighbourhood: if one ignored the threat of the Nibel wolves. That being said though, Cloud was getting bored with it. There was no adventure to be had in small town life. Everyday Cloud would get out of bed knowing that he would meet the same people he met the day before and do the same things as the day before, and the next day would be exactly the same. It felt like he was trapped in an endless loop of reality sometimes.

But Midgar, that city was a different story all together. The whole place was based around the Shinra Steam Power Company, employing most the inhabitants in some way or another, and being responsible for almost all the land. There were so many more people, with so much more to do: there's not a chance anyone would ever be stuck reliving a day.

Taking a quick spit from the icy water Tifa had brought him over to sooth a momentary bout of coughing, Cloud made a fast trip over to the hostess' table. He peeled one of the fliers off the top of the pile, accidentally pulling a few extra sheets out of place as he did so. Across the top of the page in big black letters was written "SHINRA", along with the company's diamond logo. Directly beneath that was a wall of words, accompanied by a few pictures.

Returning to his seat, he glanced over the pictures and titles printed under the logo. There were a few jobs listed; something called the Turks, another called Brass, and a third that really caught Cloud's eye: SOLDIER. The column for the SOLDIER job was headed with a picture of large man, practically made of muscle, holding in his hand a sword almost twice his own size. A scar dragged over his upper arm and another on his cheek, his eyes burned with determination and his stance declared he was ready for a fight. Everything about the image _screamed_ hero and excitement!

Cloud read the article over and over, memorizing every detail of the job; protection, peacekeeping, travel and so forth. It sounded like it entailed every adventurous aspect of life that he wanted. Not to mention it seemed to pay well.

When Cloud's food was bought over to him, he hardly even noticed. In fact, everything else Cloud did for the next while he was in that restaurant was complete autopilot, from eating to paying. Right now, if it wasn't Shinra, he didn't care.

* * *

After Cloud finally finished his meal, he didn't return to work, he had nothing pressing to work on anyways. Instead, he went back to his house, Shinra flier in hand. There was more research he wanted to do into this SOLDIER thing and he'd need a phone and Ethernet for that.

* * *

Cloud had been on the phone for probably a little over an hour or so with a Shinra rep when he caught the smell of food floating up from downstairs. Taking that as a cue that it was dinner time, he politely excused himself from the conversation, claiming to now be satisfied with his knowledge of SOLIDER and complimenting the woman on the other side of the phone on her helpfulness.

By the time he'd cleaned himself up and gotten downstairs, Cloud found the table already set. A hot plate of food waited for him on one side of the small brass top table, directly across from his mother's plate, with a tea pot, milk and sugar set in the middle.

"Oh! Cloud, when did you get home?," his mother commented, surprised, as she noticed her son descend the stairs.

Cloud pulled a chair from the table and sat down, "Uh...one-thirty?," he estimated(it had actually been closer to twelve).

"That early? What have you been doing since then that's had you locked away from your dear mother?," Mrs. Strife wiped her hands on a dish towel and flattened down her light blonde hair before taking her own seat at the table.

Cloud poked at his food with a fork, but made no effort to actually consume any of it,"I...I was doing research on a new career on the Ethernet."

"I thought you made good money as a mechanic though?" Mrs. Strife dropped a few sugar cubes into her son's tea cup, just covering the cubes with milk and filling the rest of the cup with tea.

The teen picked his spoon from the table and began to stir the sugar and milk into his tea,"Yeah, I do... but I think I want to try something different."

"Different how?"

"Well...,"he hesitated, unsure of how his mother would react, "...I wanna work for Shinra...as a SOLIDER I mean."

"You want to fight, Cloud? But...you don't have the skills for that, and it's very dangerous!" His mother's tone was one of pure concern.

"I-i know, that's why I'm going to train. I have more than enough money saved up for the trip too. I can travel to Midgar and rent a hotel for a few days if I need to before I get an interview. If I get in then Shinra will cover all my basic living needs and I can keep all the money I've saved for extra expenses: if not then I can use that money to get myself a start there. I've really thought this out, mom...!"

"I can see that Cloud, and..I don't mean to sound un-supportive by saying this, but I just don't see this working out for you."

"...Didn't think you would," he mumbled to himself before addressing his mother again, "Mom, just let me make a mistake on my own for once, if it is a mistake."

"I'm sorry honey," she sighed, "but this is one thing I don't _want_ you to learn on your own. Besides Cloud, you need to think of the people here. Now that Master Zangan is retired, and since Tifa never finished mech training with him, you're the only mechanic in town. We need you _here_, not off fighting mosters."

"...Sorry mom, I've been doing what's needed for Nibelheim for five years without a break longer then 14 hours... I want to do something selfish for once." Cloud wasn't proud of himself for what he'd just said, and he was even less proud about what he was about to do.

He stood from the table, bringing with him his tea and leaving his food untouched; he climbed the stairs to his room, almost tripping when he coughed. He knew his words held some harshness, especially against his own mother, but he knew it's what he needed to say if he even slightly wanted to get the message across to her.

Cloud was determined, he would make it to Shinra, even if his mother did want him too, even if it cost his town their only mechanic. He would become a SOLIDER, even if it cost him an arm and a leg to do so.

After all, he could just make replacements.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Prologue, yay! I'm sorry guys, I know this chapter is kind of dull, and I don't expect to have you hooked yet, but it's just a prologue! The real character torture- I mean plot, gets going in the first chapter! Also, I'd like to apologize now for the poor quality of this writing. I haven't written a proper chaptered fanfiction in three years, I need to get back in the swing of things!

Oh, and in case anyone missed anything here's the basics of this AU...

It's a Steampunk universe? Yes? Yes, I think anyone who's not a total dunce should have got that(no offense if you didn't)

Cloud's hair isn't it's normal bright blonde. I didn't feel that really suited the shorty setting, so I went with dirty blonde instead.

Mako doesn't exist. Seeing as the science of the world is steam and stuff, either the lifestream/mako/materia would be useless or steampowered things would be. ...logic people.

If you have a question, ask it in a review and I'll reply as soon as I can!


End file.
